Harness or not?

Hi I have a 9 month old chihuahua x yorkie and he pulls on the lead alot, I have just recentely tried letting him off the lead and he is great and loves me throwing his ball for him. I am just concerned how to stop him pulling though, I have tried stopping every time he does it and dont want to obviously jerk the lead as he is a very small dog and will hurt his neck (he only weighs 7 pounds)

Anyway I was thinking about getting a harness - what are other peoples views on these?
thanks
Diane

A harness - for what purpose? What do you want to teach the dog? And how long do you train at one time?

What we did from Odin was a puppy, was that we used his harness for walks when we didn't train, long walks and woodwalks. During some of these, or on shorter walks, we used a normal collar, and trained a MAXIMUM of 5-10 mins the first weeks from he was about 4 months.

The dogs soon learns the difference between harness and collar in that way. Odin knows that when he has the harness on, he can sniff away, and is allowed to pull (to a certain degree). When he has the collar on, he is not allowed to pull. He's 3 now, and walks on a loose leash both in collar and harness if I tell him to, though.

Absolutely! I use a harness for my Yorkie. Infact, she has never so much as worn a collar. Harnesses are actually preferable for small breed dogs as they put no pressure on the trachea. It is easy to damage or strain a small dogs trachea, simply due to their small size. Even an accidental tug in the wrong direction has the potential to be damaging. Thus, the harness is much kinder.

We use a Snugglepets fleece harness:

http://www.snugglepets.co.uk/index.p...ex&cPath=19_20

I haven't had my Yorkie weighed in a while, but I'd guess that she is about the same weight as yours...7lbs ish. She has the size 0 harness. They are brilliant!

i wouldnt focus on looking equipment to sort this out for you, i'd up the training.

how much, what type, and how long have you been training your dog not to pull?

have you used treats?
have you been to dog training school?
do you use a relaxed lead or short tense lead?

When we first got our second Beagle we had problems on walks as they'd pull to be out in front when walked together. We got these harnesses for them:

http://www.premier.com/View.aspx?pag...uctdescription

Instantly the pulling stopped. We were able to take two young dogs on walks and they'd behave perfectly. We recommended the harness to quite a few people and they all swear by it.

It *seems* to actually train the dogs to walk to heel. Certainly it ensures that they don't pull so it's ideal when you haven't got time to concentrate on training but you don't want them establishing bad habits. (We still use them occasionally if we're going somewhere sniffy where we know they'll pull if we haven't got time or inclination to concentrate on training).

The lead attaches in the center of the chest. If the dog pulls he finds himself directed towards you rather than moving forward (so they say). All I know is you pop the harness on and they walk like perfectly trained dogs.

Ours are 20lb + dogs. I don't know how well it'll work with a really little 'un.

Dudley is a large dog, and he pulls when being walked, to the extent that i get dragged and he chokes!!!!! so i bought a halti, but it came up over his eyes(maybe too big)i then bought a gentle leader, which is adjustable, this is the best purchase i have made, he doesnt pull, as it tightens, and i dont get dragged around, so win win situation,

All of my Chis wear Puppia harnesses. They are great for the Chis, a good fit for Chi shape and they wash really well. They are pretty expensive but worth every penny.

There are two types, the classic (which fits over the head and does up with an adjustable clip round the chest) and the jacket (which is just like a coat but with a thick strip of velcro to get a perfect fit.

A 7lb-er would fit into a "small" classic but the jackets come up smaller, so either a small or a medium but probably a small. You'd have to measure your dog round the neck and chest and look at the Puppia website to get exact measurements.

I've tried all sorts of harnesses but the Puppias definitely are the best for Chis imo.